Centre Governance & Board of Directors

Board of Directors
DDIC’s Board of Directors and the Industry Advisory Committee are closely involved in the review and oversight process contributing to the center's decision making and its interaction with industry.. The Board comprises of prominent leaders in the field of medicine and pharmaceutical sciences.

Dr. El-Kadi received his BSc in Pharmacy and MSc in Pharmacology from Tripoli and Benghazi University (Libya) in 1990 and 1994, respectively. Also, he is a registered pharmacist in Libya and Canada. In 1999 he received his PhD in Pharmacology from University of Montreal (Montreal, Quebec, Canada). Thereafter, he did postdoctoral training in Molecular Toxicology at the University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario, Canada). Dr. El-Kadi was a professor in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) since 2001. He was the Chair of Pharmaceutical Sciences Division (2005-2008), Director of Graduate Studies (2008-2009), and the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies (2009-2013).
Dr. El-Kadi’s research interests are in the areas of Pharmacology and Molecular and Environmental Toxicology. His research resulted in over 120 peer-reviewed papers in prestigious journals and similar number of abstracts and presentations. His research is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR), Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and several Biotech companies. He has supervised significant number of undergraduate, MSc, PhD students and postdoctoral fellows. He has served as editor, associate editor and member of the editorial board for a number of journals in the pharmaceutical sciences.

Dr. Lawrence Richer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Associate Dean Clinical Research and Director of the Northern Alberta Clinical Trials and Research Center (NACTRC). He also serves as the Associate Director of the Women and Children’s Health Research Institute (WCHRI), provincial co- lead for the Pragmatic Clinical Trials platform within the Alberta SPOR SUPPORT Unit (AbSPORU), and interim Divisional Director for Pediatric Neurology. He is a Pediatric Neurologist with clinical and research interests in the treatment of headache and disorders of the autonomic nervous system. As Associate Dean, Clinical Research and Director of NACTRC he has a broad commitment to maximizing the use of health data to improve patient outcomes through research, to optimizing research administration processes, and to enhancing support for innovation in clinical trials. As Associate Director at WCHRI, he is leading the development of a clinical trials unit and data coordinating center for KidsCAN Trials – a national pediatric clinical trials network.

Dr. Vohra is a pediatrician and clinician scientist, with a Masters degree in clinical epidemiology and fellowship training in clinical pharmacology. A Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and School of Public Health at the University of Alberta, Dr. Vohra is the founding director of Canada's first academic pediatric integrative medicine program, the Complementary and Alternative Research and Education (CARE) program at the Stollery Children's Hospital (www.care.ualberta.ca). She is a recipient of the Dr, Roger's Prize for Excellence in CAM research and has recently been elected to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, considered one of the highest honours for individuals in the Canadian health sciences community Dr. Vohra is recognized as an expert in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) by Health Canada and has worked with the agency to identify and mitigate harms related to natural health product use. She was invited to write the Canadian Pediatric Society statement on the use of natural health products in children and was co-principal author of the American Academy of Pediatrics statement on the use of CAM in children.
Dr. Vohra is a member of the Executive Committee for the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Section on Complementary and Integrative Medicine. Dr. Vohra is the founding director of the Canadian Pediatric CAM Network (PedCAM) (www.pedcam.ca).